A Reviewing System for Men

You’ve probably seen studies that show female readers outnumber male readers by a fairly wide margin. I don’t know what the margin is – you think I sit around reading studies all day?

Of course men do read. I don’t know what the scope or methodologies of the studies were, or whether they encompassed such reading materials as appliance instruction manuals and periodicals (ahem). Even so, that doesn’t mean men couldn’t make a better showing.

It seems obvious that part of the problem is the current rating system. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked closely at the current and most widely-used rating system for books, but it breaks down something like this: Continue reading “A Reviewing System for Men”

And the winners for this year are…

Goodness, the year has raced past at a rate of knots! It seems like only yesterday I was decorating the Christmas tree, and now that time is almost upon us again! Only thirty-seven Christmas shopping days left. Eeeek!

So, how has your year been? Did you stick to your new year’s resolutions? Did you achieve what you set out to do? Did you write the books you wanted to? Did you read the books you wanted to?

Continue reading “And the winners for this year are…”

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Earlier this month Stephen Hise gave his take on a survey of readers coordinated by bestselling author Marie Force. On the subject of reviews, Hise summarized a few of the survey’s findings with these words:

Reviews are important, but readers pay far more attention to other reader reviews on retail sites than to reviews from publications and review sites.

This seemed like a fair summary of the six survey questions related to reviews and their impact although I did have one nit to pick, which we’ll get to shortly. In the comments I saw this exchange between Hise and IU contributor Lin Robinson. Continue reading “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics”

Review-Only Virtual Tours: Are You Paying for Reviews?

I have to tell you that the whole time the sock puppet controversy was raging, I was cringing inside. The reason? I’ve paid for reviews. Kind of. Oh, not through some fly-by-night “good reviews guaranteed!” outfit. Instead, I’ve bought a couple of review-only blog tours.

I talked last week about virtual blog tours. If you missed that post, you can read it here. One of the flavors of tours that most outfits offer is the review-only tour, in which the operator recruits a number of bloggers to read and review your book. The tour operator asks you to provide a copy of your book, or a coupon or gift card so the reviewer can buy a copy, as well as the usual stuff: blurb, cover image, author picture, and buy links. If the reviewer hates your book, he or she can use the other materials to put together a book feature to run instead of a scathing review. Most of the time, bloggers will post their reviews not only on their blog, but also on Amazon and/or Goodreads, which of course helps your rating. Continue reading “Review-Only Virtual Tours: Are You Paying for Reviews?”